Once a thriving North African military outpost, Thamugadi was neglected under the sands of the Sahara Desert until centuries later.
Founded by Emperor Trajan around 100 AD, the city of Thamugadi, also known as Timgad or Tamugas, is located in the province of Mumidia in North Africa. As a base for veterans of the August 3 Army, Thamugadi thrived for hundreds of years, thrived, and became an attractive target for invaders. Following the attack by vandal forces in 430, repeated invasions weakened the city, making it irreversible and abandoned during the 700s.
The sand of the Sahara Desert blew and buried Thamugadi for almost 10 centuries until the 1700s, when a group of Scottish scholars came to this place. In 1763, the Scottish aristocrat James Bruce was working at the British consulate in the coastal city of Algiers (now the capital of Algeria). Mr. Bruce is an academic with a keen interest in history and culture. Before coming to Algeria to take up his post, he spent a few months in Italy studying the history of Africa and its role in Antiquity.
After clashing with his superiors in London and being sacked in 1765, instead of returning to England, Mr Bruce and a Florentine artist named Luigi Balugani embarked on an adventure across Africa. During their journey, they took notes and created illustrations depicting many amazing people and places they encountered.
At the start of their adventure, they traveled south to the deserts of Algeria in search of traces of ancient civilizations. Mr Bruce and Balugani saw Roman ruins as they explored more remote areas of the region.
On 12/12/1765, they identified the site of ancient Thamugadi. Many believe they are the first Europeans to visit in centuries, located near the northern slope of the Aures Mountains. “It’s a small town, but full of elegant buildings,” Bruce wrote in his diary. He is convinced that this ruin is what remains of the city founded by the Roman Emperor Trajan more than 1000 years earlier.
Mr. Balugani died in 1770 and Mr. Bruce returned to London in 1774. When he shared his findings, the information was met with great skepticism. In 1780 he began to write a memoir on his stay in Africa, a five-volume work entitled “The Nile River’s Origin Discovery Tour”, published in 1790. When Bruce died born 4 years later, the majority of British scholars still refused. to recognize their achievements.
Remains of a splendid Roman city
The city was excavated after nearly 10 centuries of being buried under the sands of the Sahara. Photo: GRAND PALAIS
Thamugadi continued to be forgotten in the desert sands until 1875, after the trip of Robert Lambert Playfair, British Ambassador to Algeria. In his 1877 book, Playfair pays homage to his predecessor Bruce and provides more details about Thamugadi. His observations indicated the importance of the city to the entire region, noting that it was built at the intersection of six Roman roads.
In Mr. Playfair’s opinion, this architecture replaced the nearby town of Lambaesis – the military capital of Nubia of the old empire. He also concluded that Thamugadi was once a center of commercial and agricultural activity. He also described the magnificence of this ancient Roman city. On the floor under the gate there are still deep trenches that show the heavy traffic entering the city along the busy Royal Road.
The French took control of the site in 1881, a few years after Ambassador Playfair’s visit, and maintained a presence there until 1960. During this time, the site was systematically unearthed. Although buried for centuries in the sand, Thamugadi has fortunately not been crushed by any work. Thamugadi was one of the few fully unearthed Roman towns.
Important studies
Research carried out by M. Playfair and other French researchers has enabled historians to trace the history of the city. Originally, the city was called Colonia Marciana Trajana Thamurga in honor of the sister of Emperor Trajan.
In the middle of the 3rd century AD, the city’s population peaked at 15,000. They have beautiful public buildings including a wonderful library and a total of 14 bathrooms. The site also played a strategic role in the defense of the southern border of the Roman Empire. North Africa was the center of grain production and the Augustan 3rd Army was stationed in Thamugadi to transport food to Rome.
Every two years, hundreds of people will be dismissed from the legion, and they settle in Thamugadi to work in agriculture. Their presence also served as a deterrent to the invaders.
The general crisis that occurred on the border of the Roman Empire ultimately caused damage to Thamugadi. After being plundered by vandals in the fifth century, the city began to fall into disrepair. After the fall of the Roman West, Thamugadi was briefly resurrected as a Christian center and a fortress was built outside the city in 539. However, the city was abandoned before or during the conflict.
From that point on, the Sahara gradually covered Thamugadi, and it was hidden for 1,000 years until the discovery of James Bruce and other scholars, bringing back the city’s buried glory. Thamugadi was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.
